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Regan Sherman

Member for

2 years 2 months

Title: Manager, U.S. Patient Advocacy Year joined PA Group: 2015Year joined Genzyme: 2015

Description of your current role and typical activities/responsibilities

I joined Genzyme’s U.S. patient advocacy team in the spring of 2015, working alongside Dan Leonard and Kathleen Coolidge. In this role I interact most closely with groups that support patients and families managing MPS I, Tay-Sachs and related disorders. I also support Genzyme’s partnerships within the thyroid cancer community.

I’ve been fortunate to work with many patient advocacy organizations throughout my career; however, the rare disease space is fairly new for me. I am eager to learn about the unique opportunities and challenges within these patient communities and to shine a light on these insights for my Genzyme colleagues.

Previous roles/experience, at Genzyme or elsewhere

Prior to joining Genzyme I spent several years as an oncology advocate, working first for a professional society and later as the director of communications for a national patient organization. Most recently, I drew on these experiences to help companies better understand and effectively partner with patient organizations as an advocacy consultant.

In past lives I’ve been an expert tank folder at American Eagle, a box office ticket taker at James Madison University (go dukes!) and an ice cream scooper on Cape Cod, where I grew up.

What does patient advocacy at Genzyme mean to you?

To me, patient advocacy at Genzyme (or any company) means finding and creating opportunities to share the patient experience across all functions within the company, so that business decisions are guided by a real understanding of patients’ needs. As part of the patient advocacy team, it’s my job to ensure that unmet needs within patient communities are understood and effectively communicated to my colleagues.

Tell us one or two things about yourself

I am recently married and live outside of Boston with my husband and our cat, Mowgli.
My favorite quote is from the comedienne Gilda Radnor, who encourages us to embrace uncertainty: “Some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity…”